Office folklore in the academic paperwork empire: The interstitial space of gendered (con)texts

“Office folklore,” the ubiquitous cartoons, parodies, and sayings photocopied, faxed, and displayed in millions of offices across the United States, is an expressive nexus of individual and organization, work and play, handicraft and technology. This feminist cultural critique locates office folklore in the interstices of organizational structure as cooperatively created spaces of hypochondriasis, resistance, and pleasure for organizational members who participate in its enactment. We entered and explored this theoretical space through conversations with university staff members and textual exegesis of women‐centered items of office folklore. The gendered (contexts of office folklore emerge as alternative discourses to organizational control.